Stormy Weather
It
is hard not to talk about the weather right now,
even though the sun peeked out for a bit in the
California Bay Area today, offering a brief lull
from the winter storms that have been wreaking
havoc up and down the state’s coast.
Over
these past two days, as heavy downpours from the
so-called “bomb cyclone” flooded streets and
basements, surging waves battered the Northern
California coastline, and high winds tore down
trees and power lines, causing at least six
deaths, I’ve been thinking about how weather was
once considered a safe topic; of how it was
often used as “small talk,” to steer turbulent,
divisive conversations — such as, say, the
attack on Capitol that took place on this day
two years ago — into calmer, neutral
waters.
Those days are long gone.
As the weather (or “climate,” to be technically
correct) is getting weirder by the day —
excessive rain in California and unusually warm
winter in Europe being cases in point right now
— so is the conversation around what’s causing
it to be that way, thanks largely to the deluge
of misinformation on social media, supported by Big Tech, which plays into
people’s fears and resistance to new
ideas.
Separately, I’ve been
following the many heart-warming stories of
strangers reaching out to help each other,
offering food and shelter to stranded travelers
and folks who have been snowed in or flooded out
of their homes during the winter storms that
have hit so many parts of the country in recent
weeks.
It seems to me, our future
lies somewhere between these two realities — our
instinct to help and our instinct to fear (or
deny the existence of) the
unknown.
As this new year gets
underway, somewhat chaotically, I’m pinning my
hope on research that indicates that
it’s our natural instinct for compassion that
has ensured humanity’s survival so far. May that
instinct prevail in the months and years
ahead.
Maureen Nandini
Mitra Editor, Earth Island
Journal
Photo by Yang
Shuo/Unsplash
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